Amiah
by pacphys
Summary: At night it hides, away from sun. There is naught which can be done. The final petal of summer's flower shall die should it ascend to power. The Turtles take it on with a few recently acquired gifts.
1. Prologue

_**Amiah**_

**Prologue**

It was almost a year ago now that we found that the ooze that transformed us into mutants nearly 22 years ago had a few more surprises in store for us. Impossible was the first word I used for the changes that occurred in my brothers and myself. Of course, considering that they happened, I had to revise that statement slightly and settled on the word improbable.

I'm not sure, even now, if I actually changed first or if it was merely that the passive nature of my 'gift' was more apparent early on. Frankly, it hit me like a speeding truck. I collapsed on the floor of the dojo, and when I woke up I was reading Leo's mind. I later discovered that when I'm in contact with another individual it's kind of a two way street; I hear them, they hear me. As nice as it would be, I don't pretend to understand how all this came about.

While I was struggling to control my ability, Leo and Raph discovered theirs. Leonardo gained precognition and the ability to change color at will, kind of like a chameleon. His camouflage gift allows him more detail and adaptation to movement than your standard color-changing reptile is capable of though. Additionally, he can change color at will rather than merely adapting to his surroundings. He hid from us for a long time and was, as Raphael put it, 'A real pain in the shell' and 'had a stick up his-' well, let's not go there, shall we? Leo wasn't ready to accept what was happening.

Raphael, wouldn't you figure? He has incredible strength. Now don't get me wrong, he's always been the strong one, but not like this. He also seems to have high resistance to adverse conditions. Since this all started and we got to know our new mutations a little better, we began testing him. Fire, water, getting buildings collapsed on top of him (well, that just happened, we'd never purposely do that), he just gets up and walks away. Now, I'm not saying he's indestructible or anything, but he's probably as close as anyone is likely to get.

Neither Raphael nor myself knew how to deal with our changes at first, and imagine my shock when he came to me and asked for help. I'd never tell him because I know how he'd react, but I am ever thankful that he did. Without him, I don't think I would have gotten through those first few weeks.

Then there's Mikey. He didn't find his new abilities until a while after the rest of us. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe he wasn't in the mutagen as long, maybe he really is younger, maybe the nature of his mutation required more time to present itself. There are any number of possible explanations, but I digress. If Tigger were a turtle he'd be Mikey. Actually, maybe a more accurate description would be a turtle form of a cheetah crossed with Tigger; fast and bouncy, that's our Mikey.

Well, shortly after we all discovered these changes, the Foot, under their new leader, started getting too close to our home for comfort. By the time I got up to the fight, having been preoccupied elsewhere, Mikey had sustained what would, under normal circumstances, have probably been a fatal wound. There was an explosion (I believe I mentioned the building that got dropped on Raph?) and everything got very strange. When I woke up again, Leo told me that I had 'healed' Mikey. That's not really as accurate as if I were to say that I accepted some of his pain. His injuries weren't gone, I'd just transferred some of them to myself. Believe me when I say it hurt. The important thing, however, is that Mike survived and is here with us today. I'd rather spend a bit of time in bed recuperating than lose one of my brothers any day of the week.

We haven't seen much of the Foot lately, but I am absolutely sure that they are just biding their time, and I know that my family agrees with me on that point. There's something big on the horizon, and I don't need telepathy or Leo's precognition to know that. Something is coming, and it's not going to be good. I don't know what it is, but it's there. I only hope we can stop it... before it's too late.

* * *

**A/N:** I must be nuts. TOWCaBeT is still in progress, Imprisoned (yes, the last chapter is coming!) and Family Ties are waiting to be posted (as in, I've finished writing them for all intents and purposes), and here I am starting another story. Actually, that's not really true since this little tale's rough draft is currently weighing in at 11 chapters and is close to being tied up.)   



	2. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I should probably reiterate this one, for this story, though you will probably figure it out quickly. "talking"... _thinking_. That is the standard I use. Occasionally you might see a single word inside quotes that is also in italics. In that situation I use the italics for emphasis. For the most part, especially in this story, I try to avoid that usage of italics. If I do happen to use that formatting, I'm sure you'll know the difference. An e-mail with review responses for you wonderful readers who reviewed the prologue is on it's way!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own squat. If I did, would I be here? Seriously, now! Alright, already. I don't own the turtles or anything related to them and I don't get paid for this. Please don't sue me.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Hey Don," Leo called, "You ready to go? Mike and Raph already left!"

"Just a minute, Leo, I'm almost finished with this." Don completed the last two solder joints then unplugged the iron. He grabbed his bo staff from where it leaned against the wall by his desk and returned it to the holster on his back before heading out to join Leo.

"You're late." Leo scolded as Don entered the dojo.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Donnie apologized. "If I stopped on time I would have lost my place and had to start all over."

"Just try to be punctual next time."

"Sure thing." Don grinned as he joined Leo on the floor. The pair dipped into a light meditation before their nightly training run.

* * *

Leo darted out into the sewers followed closely by his brother. For a long time neither turtle said a word, just ran in a companionable silence.

"I don't like it, Donnie." Leo muttered several minutes into their run.

"We knew we hadn't seen the end of the Foot." Don reminded his brother. "They don't die with their leaders. The snake always has another head."

"This guy's worse."

"Worse than Shredder?" Don asked. It had been several years since the defeat of the Shredder and they had taken down several heads of the Foot clan since that time. The turtles considered themselves lucky that none of the Shredder's successors had been quite as clever or powerful as the Shredder had been.

Leo sighed before responding. "I don't know yet. We don't know enough about him."

"We'll get through it, Leo. We always do." Donnie reassured his blue-masked brother.

Leo picked up the pace a little and Don stayed right on his heels. "How can you be so sure?"

"I'm not." the purple-masked turtle admitted freely. "You're the precog, remember? I'm just optimistic like that."

Leo laughed lightly and turned his focus back to his running and his surroundings. He didn't feel anything, but Donnie stopped suddenly.

"What is it?" Leo asked.

Don looked unsure. "Foot, I think. They're in the sewers, Leo! They're looking for something."

Leo was quiet a moment and let Don listen to whatever he was hearing.

"It's not us they want, but they're definitely after something. I almost think it's inanimate, a thing rather than a person."

Leo felt a sudden precognitive flash. _There's not enough time!_ "Donnie, we gotta get outta here!" Leo started running in the opposite direction and Don followed after a moment's hesitation. Leo could only hope that moment wasn't too long.

"Leo, there's a-"

"I know. Run!" Leonardo snapped.

"We have to get out of this tunnel! Over there!" Don shouted as he spotted a manhole cover.

"Don, no..."

"We can't stay here. The tunnel is the worst place to be!" Donnie insisted as he ascended the ladder two rungs at a time. Leo followed momentarily. Emerging in an alley the pair made a hasty retreat to the rooftops.

"Where is it?" Leo asked.

"The tunnel we were in." Don informed promptly. "Head west." Without another word they took off across the rooftops at top speed. They continued their dash until an explosion rocked the building beneath them.

* * *

Raphael was knocked off his feet by the blast and Michelangelo landed on top of him.

"Shell! What was that?" Raph demanded, though he knew he wouldn't be getting an answer from Mikey. At least not anything more than he had already figured out.

Mike just shrugged and wished that the ringing in his ears would stop. He was unceremoniously shoved to the floor by his brother, whom he had been squashing. When Mikey tried to stand his equilibrium was still a little off as a result of the blast that had rocked the tunnels. Dropping back to the floor until the dizziness passed, he noted the concerned look on Raph's face.

"I'm ok." Mikey insisted. "I just got a bit shaken, kinda dizzy. Sounded like some kind of explosion."

"Yeah, we'd better get home. Hopefully Leo and Donnie are there."

"Didn't you bring a Shell Cell?" Mikey asked.

"Nope. You?"

"Crunched it when I fell." Mike pulled the smashed phone from his belt and showed it to Raph.

"We're not far. If you're ok, run on ahead. I'll catch up. They'll probably try calling us, if they can."

Raph helped Mike stand and the orange masked turtle took off toward the lair at top speed, looking like little more than a green blur.

* * *

"Oh no! Mike and Raph! Where do you suppose they are?" Leo asked. He didn't really expect an answer.

"They're fine. Worried about us, but they're safe." Don responded after a moment. He immediately pulled out his Shell Cell and made a quick call. A couple quick calls. Both Raphael and Michelangelo's Shell Cells went unanswered, but Mikey had finally picked up in the lair. Donnie turned back to Leo as he tucked his own Shell Cell back in his belt. "They're waiting for us."

"Look." Leo pointed across the roofs to where several Foot ninja leapt through the dark night. Together, the two turtles watched the ninja drop into the new hole in the street to the sewers.

"Someone had to have noticed that explosion." Don mused aloud. Most of his musings had become verbal over the past few months. Partially at his family's insistence, and partially at his own. It only seemed fair that his family know as much about what he was thinking as he knew about them. As a rule he didn't listen in on them, and it was even rarer for him to do so on purpose, but it did happen occasionally. Situations that arose, particularly topside, sometimes made it necessary or prudent for Don to listen to his brothers thoughts. That had been established by the whole family and everyone, even Leonardo, was content with the rules. In addition, whether Don was listening in or not, he usually had some sense of what his family was feeling and thinking.

"Which means they have to work quickly. Come on." Leo headed after the ninja, taking care to stay in the shadows of the dark night. The pair caught up with the Foot easily and they stopped on a roof near the huge hole that had been created in the street. _You got anything?_

Don reached out and put a hand on his brother's shoulder, allowing them to communicate silently. _Whatever it is, I'm not sure I want to know. _Don shook his head and kept listening.

_I'm going down there. You stay here._

_Be careful, Leo._

Leo nodded, adopted the color of the brickwork of the building and silently made his way down the fire escape. Don watched from above in concern, hoping that none of the other ninja noticed that the wall was moving.

No one noticed the nearly invisible turtle who made his way along the side of the building. Leo was a master at staying in the shadows, and with his new mutation he could stretch that ability to even greater lengths. The Foot seemed to be extracting something from the hole left by the explosion. From the looks of the rigging they used, it was something heavy. Leo watched as a large trunk or chest of some kind emerged from the hole in the pavement.

Leo knew that Don would be listening to him in this situation and responded accordingly. _It's a chest of some sort. I can't' get a good look._

As the Foot loaded the object in the back of a van, Leo made his way up the side of the building.

"Whatever it is, it's important to them." Don told his brother quietly as Leo neared the roof. "Uh, Leo, I think we just got spotted.

Leonardo and Donatello stood back to back, weapons drawn as twelve Foot ninja surrounded them on the roof. Twelve Foot ninja wouldn't be a problem, the problem was that where there were twelve there were always more.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. The characters in this story are the property of others who are not me. I make no money from this and I mean no harm, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"They should be back by now!" Raphael insisted. "We should be out there looking for them"

"You will do no such thing." Master Splinter ordered. "Give them a little more time."

Raph growled in frustration and Michelangelo looked at the floor.

* * *

Leo wasn't quite sure when the battle had moved down to street level. He wasn't sure when he'd lost track of Donnie either, but he was down in an alley with no idea where his brother had disappeared to. 

A sharp blow with the hilt of his sword dropped the nearest Foot ninja and two more fell with a well placed split kick. Leo took a moment to try and find the brother he had briefly misplaced. A familiar grunt caught his attention and he turned to see Donnie dispatching a Foot ninja by throwing him with his bo staff. There was a hard clang as the ninja slammed into a nearby dumpster. Don whirled the weapon around and caught another opponent in the gut.

"Leo, look out!" Don shrieked suddenly.

Leonardo realized that he'd felt the now familiar flash far too late. He turned to see three more enemy ninja dropping from the fire escape above him, but didn't have time to react, he'd been too busy looking for Don to notice them. The three ninja landed hard on the turtle and, though Leo fought valiantly to break their hold, he couldn't get free and the blows that rained upon him disoriented him. Moments that seemed like hours later, Leo realized that the Foot were gone and Donnie was desperately trying to wake him up. His brother didn't look much better off than he felt. The sound of sirens could be heard in the middle distance.

"Come on, Leo. You have to wake up. I can't move you by myself. We gotta get out of here!"

Leo managed to get to his hands and knees before standing with Don's help. The two turtles struggled to get to the huge hole in the pavement where they dropped into the sewers below.

"Stay with me, Leo. I need you to stay with me. If you fall unconscious then we're stuck." Donnie begged, his voice slurring slightly from beating he'd taken. Wandering into the middle of what was obviously a major Foot operation with half your team elsewhere is not generally considered an intelligent course of action.

"I can't walk any farther. Put me down."

"There's a side tunnel in five feet. You can make it. Just five more feet. You have to."

Arriving and collapsing in the tunnel, Leo just laid there for a moment before he felt Don start checking him over. A sudden flash told him they had to move, they couldn't stay here. The authorities had arrived to check out the explosion the Foot had caused and would be in the sewers momentarily. He and Don were still too close. The trouble was that Leo had no idea how to prevent being discovered.

"Just some nasty hits. A few days and you'll be fine." Don informed his battered brother. "But we have to get home."

"I can't walk that far, Don." Leo stated honestly. He took a look at his brother and knew that there was no way that Donnie could get them there either. Not only was Don the smallest of the group, complicating matters slightly, but Leo couldn't figure out why he was capable of standing. It took another moment to realize that Don wasn't standing, he was leaning against the wall just as heavily as Leo himself was.

"And I can't carry you, I can barely-" Don added cutting his statement short.

Leo didn't like the look in his brother's eyes. "Don't you even think about it." He warned.

"But I'll bet you could get us home if-"

"No, Donnie, you can't do this. Look at yourself!"

"Neither one of us can make it home this way so unless you have another suggestion?"

"I won't let you." Leo objected as he promptly put up a mental barrier and did everything in his power to reinforce it.

"I'd like to see you try." _That won't work, Leo._ Don thought as he took his brother's hands and tore through Leo's barrier like so much tissue paper.

Suddenly, Leo felt much better. He didn't feel as good as new, but definitely well enough to get himself and his brother home. _ Curse you, Donnie! What were you thinking?_ He glared at his now nearly unconscious brother.

"People coming." Don murmured weakly from his position on the ground.

"Yeah, and this is the first place they'll look." Leo muttered knowingly. He'd seen it a short while ago, but there hadn't been anything he could do to prevent it then. Deciding that there would be time later to scold Donnie about what he had done, Leo picked up his brother and raced for home. He didn't stop at the door and continued straight to the med room.

"Geez!" Raph exclaimed when Leo had backed away from the bed to allow Splinter room to work. "Did the Foot do that to him?" Raph growled.

"No." Leo admitted. "They did it to both of us."

"What...? Oh right." Raph remembered the ability to take pain that Donnie had used only once in the past. The first time it had been used to save Mikey's life, and it seemed that maybe he had done it again to save Leo. What didn't make sense was that Leo was standing. Mikey's injury had left both him and Donnie in the infirmary for a few days. Raph glanced around the room and saw Mikey standing silently in the doorway.

"I tried to stop him." Leo said softly. "I didn't want him to do it, but he got through my wall so easily. It was like I hadn't put it up."

"Why'd he do it?" Raphael asked.

"I couldn't walk, and he wasn't much better. I couldn't stop him."

"I would not expect that you could stop him, Leonardo." Splinter said with a sigh. "His gifts are as strong as any of yours are. He did only what he felt he had to do. Can you honestly say that if places had been reversed, you would not have done the same?"

Leo looked at the floor. Master Splinter spoke the truth, as usual. Donatello had done exactly what he would have if their positions had been switched.

"Is he going to be ok, Sensei?" Michelangelo asked in a small voice.

"Only time will tell, My Son." Splinter responded. "But I do believe that his chances are good. Again, you must remember that this is what he is built to do. This is his gift." He observed his three standing sons for a moment before speaking again. "Michelangelo, stay here with your brother. Raphael, Leonardo, you two, come with me."

"But Master Splinter-" Leo started to object.

"Now!" Immediately the two turtles did as they were told. As Splinter left, he saw Michelangelo take a seat in the chair next to where his brother lay.

Raphael and Leonardo followed Master Splinter to the far end of the living area.

"Do you know why I made you two leave the med room?" The wise rat asked.

The two turtles before him shook their heads.

"I made you leave because your minds are agitated. You, Raphael, are angry, and you, Leonardo, are consumed with worry." Splinter paused for a moment and just looked at his two sons. "This is not what your brother needs. Especially in his semi-conscious state, he is sensitive to your thoughts and emotions. You must know in your heart, as Michelangelo does, that Donatello will be fine. Until you know this, you must keep your distance. He wants you there, but he needs you to believe in him."

The pair nodded in understanding and Splinter left them where they stood.

"How'd it happen?" Raph asked. At Leo's slightly confused look, he rephrased his question. "How'd they get you?"

Leo sighed and started the tale from the moment he and Don had left the lair.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. I am paid nothing, and I mean no harm. Please don't sue.

**A/N:** Responses for reviews of the last chapter can be found at Stealthy Stories later this evening. (See my profile page if you don't know what I am talking about." Scroll down until you find my name in the Authors section!

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Mikey sighed as he took a closer look at his brother. Don's normally olive-green skin was marred almost completely with the black and blue coloring of bruises as well as the dark welts of burst blood vessels.

"Why'd you do it, Donnie?" He asked. "Why didn't you call us?"

Almost as if in response to the question, Don shifted slightly and his shattered Shell Cell dropped from his belt onto the bed.

"It'll be in your room waiting for you to come fix it, ok?" Mikey said as he carefully picked up the broken object. "I mean, I could try, but you don't really want that, do you?" Mikey didn't really expect an answer from his brother, which was exactly what he got.

Michelangelo sat in silence for a few minutes before his thoughts were interrupted by Don's sudden shaking. It wasn't shivering, more like he was trying to get away from something.

"Whoa, whoa, hey, calm down!" Mikey said as he moved to the bed and gently shifted Donnie so his brother's head rested just above his knee. Don remained on his side for a moment before abandoning the position in favor of lying on his back. Through the whole thing, the spasms continued. Mike was quickly running out of ideas about how to calm Donnie down when Leo opened the door.

"Hey Mikey." Leo greeted insecurely.

"Leo."

"Are you mad at me?" Leo asked carefully, having noticed the odd tone in Mikey's voice.

"Am I what? No, no, I'm not mad at you. It's just... He won't calm down." Mikey indicated the battered turtle on the bed. "He was fine until a couple minutes ago when he started shaking like this."

Leo cringed. "I shouldn't have come in here, sorry." Leo pulled the door shut, leaving a confused Mike in the med room. A few minutes later, Don stopped shaking.

"I wish you were awake so you could tell me why Leo agitates you so." Mike muttered. He sighed when he noticed that his brother was still tense. "Come on, Donnie. It's ok, you can relax now."

When Master Splinter relieved him an hour later Mikey sought out Leo.

"What did you do to him?" Mike asked shortly.

"Do to whom?"

"Don! He went nuts when you came in. I spent, like, 20 minutes trying to calm him down. What did you do to him?" Mike demanded.

"I should have listened to Master Splinter." Leo lamented. "I was concerned, and I guess my worry rubbed of on him."

Mike looked slightly confused. "Your emotions did that?"

Leo nodded. "He shouldn't have done it, Mikey. I couldn't walk, but I wasn't hurt THAT bad."

Michelangelo took a closer look and noticed that Leo also had considerable bruising. "He didn't take it all, I see." Mike commented.

"I don't think he could, even if he wanted to. He took the edge off, maybe half the damage." The look on Mikey's face told Leo that his brother was confused. "He had his own wounds too, Mikey. And he had practically carried me quite a way before neither of us could go any farther.

Mikey sighed. "Well, you're fine and he's going to be fine. It'll all work out for the best. He promised before standing to go catch a quick nap before his next shift with his brother.

"How can you be so sure?" Leo asked for the second time in one day.

"I'm just a 'glass is half full' kinda guy." Mikey replied.

"You know? Don said something similar to me earlier." Leo mumbled.

"Your glass is half empty, Leo. Try thinking positively for once." Mike grinned and headed up to his room.

Leo glanced around as Mikey left and realized that someone was missing from the lair.

* * *

Raphael was angry. He'd already knocked the reinforced punching bag back off its supports and he didn't have anything else that was safe to hit. The thing that bugged him that most was that he wasn't sure who he was most upset with. Four people came to mind immediately. Donnie had healed Leo and caused the problem, but if they hadn't gotten hurt none of this would have happened. There was also Splinter, who was keeping him from his brother, and himself for not being able to get rid of the reason Splinter was keeping him away from Don. About the only person he wasn't peeved with at the moment was Mikey.

Currently, Raphael was hopping rooftops. He hadn't been this angry in a long time. Right now he wanted nothing more than to get his hands on the guys who had blown the hole in the street and attacked Leo and Donnie so he could pound the creeps into the ground. The scary thing was that now he was more than capable of literally doing so. If he lost control, he could kill someone easily. The first time it might be an enemy, but what about the next time or the time after that? It was a possibility that Raphael knew he could never allow to happen, but he still had a temper. Leo was Mr. Control... usually, when he thought about it, there had been a while when even Leonardo had been one to fly off the handle over something that wasn't really a big deal. Raphael sighed. He didn't know how long he could keep this up.

_Was it worth it?_ He found himself thinking. Not that he'd had much choice in the matter, it had just happened, but was it worth it? He wasn't sure. It had saved his life once so in that respect it probably was, but there was still so much that could go wrong.

Lost in his thought Raphael spotted them too late to get out without being noticed. Taking in his surroundings, he realized that he was not far from where Leo said the Foot blew the hole in the street. He was too close, and should have known better. This was not the time or the place for a fight. Unfortunately, he had been spotted and no longer had a choice in the matter. He pulled his sais from his belt and waited, the fight would come to him, and he'd be ready.

These were the guys who had hurt Leo so badly that he couldn't walk home on his own. These were the guys responsible for Donnie's current semi-conscious state. These were the guys who had blown a hole in the middle of the street! Who does that sort of crap? None of these things were acceptable, and Raphael felt himself getting madder by the moment. His anger reached a boiling point and threatened explosion. These were the guys who had been the bane of his existence for the past seven years.

A Foot ninja jumped at Raphael from behind. The red-masked turtle spun and kicked him, softening the blow to a level that would knock out the other ninja rather than kill him. Two more came at Raph and he started to chatter.

"Nice work with that hole in the street there. What could possibly be so important to warrant an explosion like that! I gotta admit though, it was a beauty. We should try that on your home sometime."

Raph didn't really expect anyone to respond to his taunting, the Foot never did. If there was one thing that could be said about them, they knew when to hold their tongues. Usually. Apparently tonight was not one of those times.

"How are the other two, Red?" One of the Foot taunted from the far side of the alley, keeping plenty of distance between himself and the turtle. "Are they home, nice and warm right now? Happy and safe, maybe?"

It didn't take much of an imagination to see the cruel smirk on the face hidden behind the black mask of the Foot. It was a smirk that truly made Raphael angry. No one, absolutely no one, made fun of his brothers' pain. The heat cranked up and that simmer Raph had been running on through the fight finally boiled over. Using the speed and agility of a ninja and the strength of his new mutations Raph had the guy on the ground in a split second. The Foot ninja, too busy laughing at his own joke, never saw him move. Raphael had his fist pulled back and hatred in his eyes when a familiar arm locked around his elbow. It could have never physically restrained Raphael, but the surprise was enough to grab his attention.

"You're going too far, Raph!" The clear tones of Leonardo's voice rang in his ears and made him even angrier than he had been before.

"You just had to go check out what they were doing, didn't you?" The red-masked turtle shouted as he rounded on his brother.

Leo saw it coming before Raphael even knew it would happen. To the uninitiated observer, it looked as though Leo moved faster than was truly possible, especially in his injured state, but that wasn't his gift. Raphael missed his target and his fist plowed into the side of a building instead.

"Raph, calm down!" Leo shouted.

"It's your fault!" The scream echoed though the alley. "You let them get the jump on you! Mr. Precog never saw it coming!" Raph pulled back again and took another swing at his brother, missing again as Leo ducked the strike.

The blue-masked turtle said nothing, and concentrated solely on staying out of the way of the blows that could easily kill him. He could feel the Foot leaving, evidently having gotten more than they bargained for in the short fight with the irate red turtle.

"Why'd you have to do it, huh?" Another blow was aimed at Leo's head.

"Raph! It's me, Leo! Your brother!"

Now Raph's anger took another turn, it led him to the past few months. Leo had been a real pain in the shell as their new mutations presented themselves, and Raph still wasn't on the best of terms with his brother in blue. Leo had been truly horrible to Donnie, and that was something that Raphael was not willing to tolerate from _anyone_. Donnie had been the one person who kept him sane during those first weeks. They had been each other's salvation during that time and had forged a powerful bond. It wasn't as though the purple-masked turtle had meant to listen to Leo's thoughts, that's just what happened. The last thing Don had wanted during that time was to have other people crawling around inside his head, but Leo took the mind-reading as a personal insult.

"Raph, please! Stop this!"

Leo had also been in denial about his own mutation, and it was so perfect! Raph would have given anything to be able to blend into the wall like Leo could. Leo was currently a dark blue, rather than his normal green coloring, and he blended in with the darkness in the alley almost perfectly. Raphael had been given this stupid resistance and strength ability, and it was dangerous. It would have been much better to have something like Leo's, and the blue masked turtle had taken every opportunity to pout and complain about it. That was more than Raph could handle at the moment. He kept moving, lashing out at his brother and soon, Leo had his back in the corner. Normally, Leonardo would have been able to evade the position, but the wounds he still carried from the earlier fight were slowing his reflexes and decreasing his ability to stay a step ahead of his brother.

"You don't really want to do this, Raph. I know you don't really want to do this. You don't want to hit me, and you won't!" Leo shouted desperately as Raph kept coming toward him, he didn't know where the words were from, but he knew they were the right thing to say.

Raphael halted just before his fist made contact with Leo's face. He'd heard the words before, from another brother by another means, but in a similar situation. The mask was blue this time, not purple, and the words were spoken aloud, but Leo repeated the statement Raph had heard nearly a year ago word for word. Stumbling two steps backward, Raph suddenly realized what he had been about to do.

"Oh Shell! Leo, I..."

"It's ok, Raph. Let's just go home." Leo managed from his spot against the wall. He was exhausted, what he'd been thinking by chasing Raph out of the lair this evening, he would never know.

* * *

"Master Takeda." Estefan greeted with a bow. "My team has completed the mission, sir. The cask has been taken to level eight."

"Good, I will be down shortly." Takeda said. "Estefan, it is said that he who controls Amiah controls the future."

"Yes, sir."

"I trust that everything went smoothly." Takeda turned on his heel and walked away from his underling, hands clasped behind his back, toward the window at the far end of the room. He looked over the city from the top floor of his tower.

"Well, not exactly. But it was nothing that we couldn't handle." Estefan reported crisply. He had learned long ago that, with Master Takeda especially, honestly was the best policy. Only by knowing one's mistakes and hazards could situations be properly rectified.

"And what, exactly, do you mean by 'not exactly'?" Takeda hissed.

"We ran into two of the Turtles, sir."

"The Turtles!" Takeda growled, turning and taking three steps toward Estefan. "They have messed with our operations long enough."

"There is more, sir." Estefan inserted. "The one in the blue mask, Leonardo, may have been at the extraction site, though we are certain that the other one was too far away to see anything.

Takeda growled low in the throat. "They cannot be allowed to interfere this time. Do you understand, Estefan? No interference!"

"Yes sir."

"They are a variable. I don't like variables. I want you to take a team into the sewers, and I want you to learn all you can about them." Takeda turned back toward the window and the New York night beyond.

"Yes, Master Takeda." Estefan gave a sharp bow. "What of the cask, Master?"

"You focus on the Turtles, Estefan. I shall take care of the cask."

"As you wish." The younger man bowed again, turned on his heel and left Master Takeda's chamber.

"I shall succeed where my predecessors have failed." Takeda gloated to the empty chamber. He moved to the private elevator and pressed the button for level eight. "For I shall have the power of Amiah."


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the turtles, and I don't get paid for this, and I certainly mean no harm. Please don't sue me. All I own are a host of plot bunnies and even more dust bunnies. (sighs). Review responses can be found at Stealthy Stories, check my bio if you need the link!

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Mike's second shift of the day had started about a half hour ago. Yet again, he sat in the chair next to the bed where Donatello lay on his plastron. Michelangelo gently massaged his brother's hand, carefully seeking out pressure points in hopes that they would assist in keeping the injured turtle calm. It seemed to be working for the most part, but Don's sudden agitation alerted Mike to the presence outside the room.

"Leo, if that's you again, either calm down and come in or go away."

"You noticed me, huh?" Leo asked as he opened the door and forced his mind to calm.

"Well," Mike replied. "Donnie did first. I just guessed who it was out there."

Leo looked away.

"Hey, cool it, Leo. He's going to be fine, but you thinking otherwise only hurts him!" Mikey insisted.

"How do you do it, Mikey?" Leo asked as he forced his worry away. As he did so, the shudders that had been wracking Don's frame lessened.

"See? When you're calm, he's calm." Mike said. Observing Leo in the doorway for a moment, Mike sighed. Leo was putting on a show for Don's sake, but he wasn't convinced. Mikey could see that in his brother's eyes. "Come here."

"What?"

"Come here." Mikey repeated. "It's not like he's going to bite you or anything."

Leo walked over and Mikey indicated that he should sit on the edge of the bed. The movement elicited a small groan from the sleeping turtle.

"Now what?" Leo questioned.

"Just be patient." Mikey scolded. "You do know how to be patient, don't you?" He added in a light tone, knowing that Leo could be very patient when he had to be. Leo had shown that patience on more than one occasion.

"Mikey, he's moving!" Leo whispered, snapping Mikey from his thoughts.

"He does that." Mike replied with a laugh as Donnie searched for a less painful position and finally ended up on his back.

Leo automatically started seeking pressure points, just as Mike had been doing earlier. It was something they had done for each other when injured for years now, and he did it more out of habit than anything else. "I thought he didn't like to sleep on his back." Leo commented.

"He doesn't." Mike shrugged. "I think this is just one of the few positions that doesn't hurt as much." They just sat there together for a long time before anyone spoke again.

"Mikey, I can watch him if you want to take off for a while." Leo offered.

Before Mike could object his stomach seconded the idea with a loud growl. When he looked back at his brother, Leo had an amused look on his face. "I guess it's two against one then." Mike laughed.

"I guess." When Mike was gone Leo turned to Donnie. "Our brother is a bottomless pit, isn't he?" Leo asked even though he hadn't really expected an answer. He hadn't expected a response, but he got a violent one. Don jerked hard once, twice then he settled down for a moment.

"MIKEY!" Leo shouted.

Don jerked one more time. "AMIAH!" He cried out before falling still. Too still. He wasn't breathing.

Mikey now stood in the doorway with Raph and Splinter on either side. No one moved a muscle. Don shuddered one last time before he gasped and his eyes snapped open. He blinked a few times before speaking,

"Leo? What?"

"Are you ok?" Leo asked worriedly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. What happened? Why is everyone..." Don looked at his family. "Um, did I miss something?"

Master Splinter stepped forward and took Don's hand. "My son, what do you remember?"

"We saw the Foot in the sewers and followed them." Don looked around for confirmation. "They pulled something... a chest? A trunk? Something like that, out of a hole they blew in the middle of the road." That was where things started getting a little fuzzy. "There was a fight and I... No." Don looked around until his eyes fell on Leo. "You got hurt? No, both of us were hurt? Sirens. We got underground..." Don searched his fuzzy memories. "I don't know what happened after that."

"Donatello," Splinter said, regaining his son's attention. "I am going to say a word, and I want you to say the first thing that pops into your head, ok?" The purple masked turtle looked confused, but nodded and waited for whatever was going to be said.

"Amiah." Splinter repeated Donatello's earlier shout.

"Power. Domination. Supremacy." Donnie responded quickly and without thinking. He shook his head in confusion and found that it was a stupid thing to have done when the room promptly started spinning. "Huh? What's Amiah?" He asked when everything was stationary again.

"It is what you shouted just before you awoke." Splinter informed him.

"I did?" Everyone around him nodded.

"Great, more mysteries." Don closed his eyes for a moment.

"You hungry, Donnie?" Leo asked, causing Donnie to open his eyes again.

Don shook his head.

Deciding on another tactic, Leo spoke again. "If I bring you some juice, will you drink it?"

"Maybe." Don replied. The answer would at least get Leo off his shell, and he was pretty thirsty. He just didn't know if he could keep the juice down at the moment. Donatello watched Leo get up and leave.

"What were you THINKING, Donnie?" Raphael demanded once Leo was gone.

"Raph," Mike complained. "Didn't you just hear him say that he doesn't remember?" To him it was clear from the look on Don's face that he had no idea what their red-masked brother was going on about.

"I helped Leo," The comment was somewhere between a question and a statement, "because I had to." Donnie finished with a little more confidence.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Raph exclaimed. He fixed his battered brother with a glare.

"If I don't have to then I won't. It isn't exactly a walk in the park for me, Raph." Don replied groggily as Leo came back with some watered down grape juice. Splinter helped Donatello into a sitting position and Leo handed the juice to him. Don finished about half of it before he felt his stomach protest.

"Come on, Donnie." Leo pleaded. "Just a little more?"

"I can't, Leo." Don slurred tiredly.

"I suggest that we let your brother rest." Splinter said as he scuttled the other three turtles out of the room .


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the turtles or any associated characters, places or anything related to their universes at all, really. I get no financial gains out of this, and I mean no harm. Please don't sue!

**A/N: **Special Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter! Proper review responses can, as usual, be found at Stealthy Stories. If you need the link (though I think you all already have it), it's on my bio page! Also and huge thank you to **eldarsevenstar** for going through this chapter for me and double checking that there was no magical appearing and disappearing turtles! Thankies eldar! Go read her stuff, she's great!

* * *

**Chapter 5 **

Don had had enough of the extra practice session Leo had called specially for him. He was still hurting from the night with the Foot and Leo had been running him ragged all afternoon. He was as exhausted now as he had ever been, even after one of Splinter's most grueling practices, or after a battle with the Shredder and all the associated baddies they had ever come across. Donnie confronted his brother on the special practice, and pointed out that he was doing his best and was still injured, but Leo didn't want to hear it. The comment seemed to be leading them into a shouting match. Don hated shouting matches; he always lost. He noticed that at some point during the escalation to a fight, Raphael had come in as well.

"You're becoming a liability!" Leo shouted, shocking both of his brothers. He immediately regretted his words, but it was too late. "Donnie, I- I didn't mean that."

"What! I'm a liability? Why? Just because I'm not strong like Raph, fast like Mike or able to practically disappear like you? We did just fine for years without ever having abilities like that. Why is it suddenly a liability?" Don demanded.

"That- that's not what I meant. I didn't mean that, at least not yet." Leo shook his head and tried to figure out where he'd gone wrong.

"Not yet?" Raph asked as he came farther into the room. He could see the same question flit across in Donnie's features.

"I saw something, ok?" Leo admitted quietly. "I guess I kind of freaked out, but things have to change. I can't let it happen like that."

"Like what?" Don asked, his anger having evaporated at the words 'not yet'. Those two words changed everything when they came from Leo.

Leonardo looked away, unable to share what he had seen.

Don sighed. "Ok, what do I have to do?" He asked in a small voice.

"You can start by being more focused in morning practice. Concentrate on increasing your speed and quickness." Leo said quietly.

Donatello nodded, and the blue-masked turtle took out a stop watch. Without another word between them, Donnie started the obstacle course. Raphael watched from beside Leonardo.

"47 seconds, Donnie. 47. Raph did it in 30 this morning." Leo commented, showing his brother the timer when the purple masked turtle finally completed the course.

"I was practically unconscious for three days." Don defended weakly.

"Forty seven seconds, Donnie." Leo repeated more loudly, enunciating each syllable.

"Yes, I can see that."

That was when Leo lost it. He pulled his brother in close and cried right there in the dojo. If Raphael had been surprised by Leo's actions, it was nothing compared to Don's confusion at having his brother suddenly embrace him.

"I can't lose you, Donnie. Not like that." Leo whimpered.

"I'm not going anywhere, Leo." Don tried to comfort his brother, whose embrace was getting rather tight and heavy. "I'll try to do what you want. Leo, you're heavy." Donnie complained as he found himself supporting more and more of Leo's weight. "I'll do better, I promise, but you're squashing me."

"You promise?" Leo asked as he backed away, or rather, Raph pulled him away.

"I promise." Don made a quick gesture, crossing his heart with his right hand.

Leo finally nodded, and the three turtles headed back to the main room.

As they reached the exit of the dojo Don had a question pop into his head. "Leo?" That chest you saw the Foot take, could it have been Korean in origin?"

"I suppose so, why?" Leo had pulled himself together after his little outburst, but was still teary eyed.

"I'm not sure yet, Just something... I don't know" Don shook his head, he'd have to do a little digging.

"Hey what have you guys been-" Mikey noticed Leo's tear stained mask. "...doing?" Don had started to wander off toward his room, but Leo nixed the idea by grabbing Don by the top of his carapace and redirecting him toward the exit to the sewers. At first, Mike thought Don was going to object, but the purple-masked turtle just sighed and let Leo pull him. "Did I miss something?" Mike asked Raph, his only remaining brother in the room.

"Leo freaked, Don took 47 seconds to get through the obstacle course, Leo freaked again, Don promised to work on his speed, and something about a Korean's chest that I don't think anybody understood." Raph walked off in the direction of his room.

"Oh, uh, ok." Mike said to the suddenly empty room.

* * *

Ugh, ok, short, I know. But it doesn't work if I include it as part of the next chapter! And still mostly dialogue! 


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the TMNT or any associated characters, places, etc., and I make nothing from this, and I mean no harm, please don't sue. I promise to put everything back where I found it. **  
**

**A/N:** A HUGE thank you going out to everyone who read the last chapter and another, even bigger THANK YOU To all who took the time and reviewed the last chapter!

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**Chapter 6**

Michelangelo woke up in the main room. _Hmm... must have been more tired than I thought. _He forced himself around so he was lying on his back and stretched before rolling off the couch. As he got to his feet he froze; something was wrong. He didn't know what it was, but the very air of the lair felt electric. A sense of, for lack of a better term, wrongness permeated his whole being. Looking around, nothing seemed out of place, the lair was quiet, but not so quiet that it was worrisome. Static from the TV, the hum of the refrigerator, the ticking of the clock and the occasional drip of water all breathed life into their humble home. So what was wrong? He headed upstairs toward where his family slept in an attempt to find the source of his disquiet.

Pausing at Leo and Raph's rooms to make sure nothing was amiss, Mikey found his brothers sleeping soundly. Continuing down the hall to Splinter's room also revealed nothing out of the ordinary. He noticed the change as he approached his and Donnie's rooms. His brother's door was open still and the familiar glow of his computer monitor emitted from within. While it wasn't an everyday thing, it was far from unheard of. Mike just hoped that his brother wasn't still awake. As he approached Don's room the air began to buzz. It was more than the electric feeling he had noted earlier, this was stronger, more persistent. Part of him didn't want to know, but the rest had to, and Mike poked his head into Donnie's room. The purple-masked turtle was asleep at his desk.

"Donnie?"

"Matai akah reiset, Amiah. Matai akah reiset, Amiah."

It was that Amiah word again, but the rest of what Donnie said was gibberish to Mike. He wasn't sure if he should wake his brother or not. Actually, if Mikey was perfectly honest with himself, Donatello was chanting, not just speaking.

"Matai akah reiset, Amiah. Matai akah reiset, Amiah."

Decision time came and Mike made his. "Donnie, dude, time to wake up because you're scaring me, bro." He shook Don's shoulder.

"Matai, akah reiset, Amiah."

"Matey aka reset ahmia. I got it. Wake up!" Mike pleaded as he shook his brother harder.

"MATAI AKAH REISET, AMIAH." Mikey watched his brother say the words again, but this time it didn't sound like Don's voice. At least, not entirely. This voice was much deeper than his brother's and the tone was more dangerous than even Raph or Leo had ever used. "MATAI AKAH REISET, AMIAH!" The strange voice repeated. Don shifted suddenly, his elbow landed on the keyboard and Mike watched as the letter n started filling page after page of the open document Don had evidently been taking notes on.

"RAPH! LEO!" Mikey shouted. "Donnie! Donnie, come on buddy. Ya gotta wake up, bro."

Don ignored him. "MATAI AKAH REISET, AMIAH."

"Come on, Don. Stop it. You know how I get when I'm scared. I make everybody crazy."

"You always make everybody crazy." A sleep deprived Raphael murmured as he found the source of the shout that woke him up.

"What is it, Mike?" Leo asked as he came in behind the red-masked turtle.

"**MATAI AKAH REISET, AMIAH!**" The voice that was not Don's shouted.

"Oh."

"What's going on, Leo?" Raph asked.

"I don't know!" Leo cried out. He'd just gotten there too.

"My sons, what is the..." Splinter asked as he came into the room, awoken by the ruckus in the lair so late at night.

"MATAI AKAH REISET, AMIAH." The strange voice said again, not quite as loud or powerful as a moment ago, but still dark, dangerous and insistent.

Splinter immediately jumped into action. He carefully took Donatello's hand in his own. "Donatello, free yourself from foreign influence. Separate your mind, and make it your own once more." Splinter suggested in an oddly distracted tone.

"Matai..." The unknown voice dominated, but Don's tenor joined it this time.

"One being, one mind, your mind, Donatello." Splinter continued.

"Akah..." This time Don's voice was more prominent in the mixed tone.

"Separate from that which binds you, Donatello."

"Reiset..." Donnie's voice was the dominant one now.

"Come back to us, my son."

"Ami-i-i... NO!" Don's eyes snapped open as he jerked up and fell off his chair, landing hard on his hands and knees. "My mind. Stay out of it, Takeda! You will NOT use me to do your dirty work!"

"Master Splinter, what do we do?" Mikey asked in a panic.

"We wait."

"Did he say Takeda?" Raph asked suddenly. "As in..."

"Yes." Leo replied. "The leader of the Foot."

"Takeda, get OUT of my head!" Don ordered from the floor.

Leo watched as something, some invisible restraint, snapped. He could do nothing but look on as the release left Don to his own devices and the turtle's elbows nearly gave under his own weight. Recovering quickly, Donnie pushed himself back up on to all fours long enough to vomit before letting himself fall on his side, narrowly missing the disgusting puddle. Only then, did Leo find it in himself to move.

Donnie opened one eye and saw his family around him. He also noticed the food marked 'return to sender' on the floor and tried, rather unsuccessfully, to push away from it. Strong arms gently moved him away from the mess, and Mikey appeared with some water. The arms, Raph was in front of him so they had to belong to Leo, moved him to a sitting position.

"Here, drink it." Leo ordered softly.

Don took the cup from Mike and sipped at the contents.

"Michelangelo," Splinter suggested, "Why don't you try to find something with which to clean up this mess. Raphael, put your brother-"

"NO! Mikey! Don't leave me!" Don cried suddenly as Mike started to leave the room to do as he had been told. "Please don't leave me. Stay, please stay, Mikey." Don begged.

"Two minutes, Donnie. I'll be right back." Mike said as brightly as he could manage.

"No! You felt it, I know you did!"

Michelangelo was shocked.

"I know you felt it. Don't leave. You found me, you MUST have felt it! Your mind is practically screaming that you felt it. I _know_ you felt it."

"What's he talking about, Mikey?" Leo asked.

"I'm... I'm not sure."

"Please, I know you felt it. I know you did!"

Mike suddenly realized what Don was going on about. "The buzzing," He whispered.

Now, Don was positively fighting against Leo to reach the orange-masked turtle. After getting a silent ok from Master Splinter, Mike moved to his highly distressed brother and gently took him from Leo.

"What buzzing, Mikey?" Leo asked.

Mike looked at Don who had calmed considerably and looked half asleep. "I was on the couch and woke up knowing that something was wrong. As I got closer there was this buzz. I don't know how else to describe it."

Leo nodded his acceptance of the story and left to do the job Mikey had originally been assigned.

"CinderLeo, cleaning up the mess!" Mike laughed when the blue-masked turtle returned.

"Ha ha, very funny." Leo muttered as he started to mop up the stinky puddle.

"I try." Mikey earned himself a glare and laughed again.

"You want to clean it up?" Leo asked with an evil smirk, holding up the bucket and rag.

"I think Donnie here might object to that." Mikey replied with a cheeky grin.

"He didn't say anything until you tried to actually leave the room." Raph reminded his brother.

Mike was sunk and he knew it. "Whoa, you guys, it was just a joke."

"Ya know, Leo, I think you and I can go back to bed and let Mikey deal with things in here." Raph suggested. "I'll just put Don in his bed and we can leave." Raph gently started to lift Don from his place next to Mikey.

"Mikey... stay." Don muttered as he grabbed onto his brother's arm and refused to let go.

"Told you so!" Mike crowed.

Leo groaned and went back to mopping up the mess.

* * *

_**The next morning**_

"I said what?" Don asked the next morning at breakfast as he put his fork down. "I did what?" The last question was spoken with a slight amount of horror at his own actions, whether he remembered them or not.

"You said, 'Matai akah reiset, Amiah'. Actually, it was more like chanting." Mike repeated the words from the previous evening as he finished his pancake. As Raph started to drop another on his plate he waved it off. Raph shrugged and took the pancake for himself.

"What does that mean?" Don asked.

"We were kinda hoping you could tell us." Raph replied through a mouthful of pancake.

Don suddenly felt ill. His stomach clenched and he fought to keep the eggs and half a pancake that he had already eaten where they were.

"Donnie, fork." Leo ordered, knowing that his brother hadn't yet healed completely since the run in with the Foot. Add the stresses of the previous evening and Leo didn't like where it was all going.

"If you don't want to clean up another mess like last night, it might be smart to let him go." Mikey suggested.

"Who asked you, Mikey?" Raph demanded.

"I'm just saying..."

"Yeah, well we don't need talk of puke at the table!" Raph snapped.

And that was it for Don. He jumped from his chair and raced for the bathroom.

"Nice one, Raph." Mikey muttered. "that was real smooth. Why don't you try again at lunch?"

* * *

Well, That's all for now! Don't forget to review on your way out. That is, if you're so inclined. I would very much appreciate your input! 


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Ok, shock and awe, pacphys actually updated this story! Yeah, probably not really, but it has been a while. Sorry, life kind of got in the way. But midterms are over now, and my internal mantra has officially become "Christmas will come... Christmas will come." Maybe next semester I will become reacquainted with a little thing I like to call Sanity. On second thought, perhaps next September... no, November perhaps? Well, maybe someday. Anyway, Thanks to everyone who read and an even BIGGER THANK YOU to those of you who took the time to review. Proper review responses will be available on Stealthy Stories! If you don't know what I'm talking about, check my profile page, but I I've seen most of you floating around there.

**Disclaimer: **As you probably all well know, I do NOT, repeat do NOT own the ninja turtles or any associated characters, places, things, etc. darn. I do not get paid for this and I mean no harm. Please don't sue. **  
**

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**Chapter 7**

"Hi April!" Don called as he came up the stairs from the antique shop below her home. Leo was close behind. Raph and Mikey had gotten into a bit of trouble during morning training and so were to remain in the lair this evening. Both had grouched that they were adults and could do as they pleased, but in the end had opted to do as they were told and accept the punishment.

"Donnie! Leo! I haven't seen you guys in forever!" April moved to Don first and hugged her friend. Don returned the embrace willingly. When Donnie released her, she moved on to Leo.

"Hi April. Sorry we disappeared like that." Leo apologized as he returned April's embrace.

"Hey, no problem, you guys had some stuff to deal with."

"Yeah. Yeah, we did." Leo agreed without divulging any other information. He glanced down at the floor, unwilling to share more of the details at present.

An awkward silence filled the room for a few moments before April broke it.

"Why don't you two wait here in the living room and I'll go start dinner." She suggested.

Don smiled at her and picked up the book on the end table. He then sat on the couch and started reading while Leo opted to follow April to the kitchen and help out in what meager ways he could.

* * *

"I don't know what else to do, April. If we can't get his speed back up, I don't even want to think about it. I've been giving him extra sprints, and I know he's trying, but it's just not working." 

"I don't know what to tell you, Leo." April commented as she dropped pasta in the boiling water. She'd been a sounding board for each of the turtles in the past, and this time was no different. Usually it wasn't Leo who came to her with his worries, but she wasn't about to turn him away. She knew as well as anyone that the blue-masked turtle tended to bottle this sort of thing up inside. If talking about it would allow him some release, she was more than happy to help. Besides, someone was finally telling her what had been going on lately that had caused her green friends to temporarily disappear from her life. She was quite sure that Leo had no idea how happy April was to have him sitting in her kitchen again.

"He's been getting winded during regular practices, and he's been distracted lately. Well, more so than usual. It's just not normal." Leo continued, oblivious to April's inner monologue.

April eyed her worried friend as she continued going through the familiar motions of making the casserole. She'd done this a hundred times before, and she continued to cook without thinking about it. It left her mind free to talk to Leo without trying to concentrate on multiple tasks while also giving her enough to do to make the conversation a little less threatening. "Could his distraction have something to do with everything else that's been going on?"

The idea surprised Leonardo. It had never occurred to him that he may have been focusing on a symptom, rather than seeking out the cause. Maybe all he was doing was only trying to clip the weed back without ever getting the root. He considered April's question for only a moment before coming up with a possibility.

"Maybe. Mikey found him chanting the other night, and when Master Splinter finally snapped him out of it he screamed for Takeda to get out of his head. Come to think of it, that's probably more than a 'maybe'. I guess I'd be pretty distracted and out of it if he'd invaded my mind."

April froze at the name. She knew the name far too well, and like the names of his predecessors, it made her blood run cold. "Takeda, as is Foot Clan Takeda?"

Leo nodded. They were silent for a long time, the only words passing between them being April's requests for various ingredients, and Leo's prompt responses.

"Well, it's almost ready." April finally informed her green friend. "Why don't you go get Donnie."

Leo sighed at his brother's name.

April gave the turtle a sad smile. She knew that he worried and there was nothing in the world that could change that, and she wouldn't want to, but she felt like she had to say something. "Donnie's wellbeing might be keeping you up nights, Leo, but if what you say is true then it's probably Takeda who keeps him up."

It was Leo's turn to freeze. Something about April's words rung truer than she could possibly know. He nodded and left the kitchen. Finding his brother asleep on the couch with the book he'd been reading lying face down on the cushion beside him, Leo realized that Don truly hadn't been sleeping lately, and he couldn't believe he hadn't realized it before. Every night since the chanting incident, Leo had noticed his brother still awake when he went to bed. While that wasn't terribly surprising, his brother's wakeful or semi-wakeful presence in the morning as well should have been. Leo didn't know how long he stood there debating his next move before April came in.

"Let him sleep. He obviously needs it." She whispered so as not to wake the slumbering turtle. April knew that Don took better care of his books than to leave them lying face down so it was obvious that the book had dropped to the sofa when he had fallen asleep. She found a bookmark and returned the reading material to the end table.

The casserole was quite good, but Leo found that he simply wasn't hungry, and that his mind was elsewhere.

"Are you ok, Leo?" April asked. "You've barely touched your food." She caught him looking toward the living room.

"I don't know what to do." Leo said again. "He's going to get himself killed if this keeps up."

April was a little shocked at Leo's blunt statement, especially since she knew that he was perfectly serious about it.

"Did you ever consider that it might be something that he has to work through on his own? You said yourself that he's trying to do as you ask-"

"NOOOOO! Stay away from me!" Don shouted. Leo and April were at his side in moments.

"Donnie! Donnie, wake up!" Leo ordered as he shook his brother.

"I will NOT be your puppet, Takeda!" Don's eyes snapped open. He looked directly at Leo and whispered to him as if telling a secret. "He who controls Amiah, controls the world." His expression changed entirely and Donnie curled up tighter on the couch and started shivering. "I'm cold. Why is it so cold?" Leo couldn't be sure if Don knew what he had just said or not.

"I'll go find a blanket." April offered, leaving Leo with his brother.

"Mikey! Where's Mikey? Leo, he can feel it. Can you feel it? The electricity?" Don asked frantically.

"Shh... You're not making much sense right now. Calm down. You're ok now."

"No, Leo." Donnie asserted. "He's still here. He wants it. He wants Amiah."

"Donnie, Shh..."

"We can't let him get it open. He can't open the chest. You can't feel it? Why can't you feel it? Mikey can."

"Feel what, Donnie?" Leo honestly didn't know what it was he was supposed to be feeling, and he didn't know why Don would think he could anyway. Though, the situation reeked of the other night when Don had been chanting. He was pretty sure he hadn't heard any chanting coming from the living room this evening, but that didn't necessarily mean that it hadn't happened. Either way, Don had definitely gotten control of it more quickly than he had last time. Leo gently prodded his brother into speaking again. "Feel what? I didn't feel anything."

"Buzzing, electric hum... power. Too much..."

April returned with a blanket and laid it over the distraught turtle.

"Mikey. Where's Mikey, Leo? Mikey."

"He's at home, Donnie. I'll take you there, ok?" Leo promised his brother. He didn't understand Don's obsession with finding Mike, but he'd done the same thing last time Takeda had invaded his mind, and Leo began to wonder what was happening. There had to be a reason for Donnie's insistence on finding Michelangelo, but for the life of him, Leo couldn't figure out what it was. The oddest thing was that last time, Don hadn't remembered the incident at all. He wondered if it would be the same this time.

"Mikey."

"I think I'd better take him home, April. I hate to leave like this." Leo apologized.

"No, it's no problem." April assured him. "Go." Leo nodded before picking his brother up, blanket and all, from the couch and heading down the stairs and out through the antique shop. He dropped into the sewers almost immediately.

"Mikey."


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, I am paid nothing, I mean to harm nothing. Please don't sue.**  
**

**Chapter 8**

Michelangelo's ears were ringing. He couldn't get away from the buzzing noise, and could only remember feeling it once before in his life. No longer hungry, he started putting his dinner plate in the sink.

"Done already?" Raph asked, surprised at Mike, of all turtles, relegating half his dinner to tomorrow's leftovers.

"Yeah, uh, I don't feel great. I'm just gonna go lay down or something." Michelangelo responded absently.

"Right." Raph shrugged, though he eyed Mikey carefully as the orange-masked turtle exited the kitchen. He knew that something was up, and was half tempted to follow. He decided to go with that half.

Raphael watched as Mike made a beeline for the sewers. It wasn't like Mikey to hide something like this, and the strange behavior caught Raph's attention. Once out in the tunnels Michelangelo shot away from their home at top speed, a speed that Raphael couldn't even dream of matching. He would have to stay here for now, and confront Mikey later. The fact that Mike had just left despite their punishment told Raphael that his brother had a darned good excuse for taking off. There wasn't much that would make Splinter's disappointment worth it. Whatever it was, Raph found himself hoping that his brother would return before their sensei noticed his absence. He simply didn't want to try explaining why Mike wasn't in the lair.

"Darn you, Mikey." Raph hit the wall, nearly putting a hole in it. He growled to himself and headed to the dojo to work off his frustrations on something that could better take the abuse.

* * *

Michelangelo had been searching for mere moments when he realized that there was not one source, but two. He guessed that one of those sources was his brother. April's place was north of his current location. Mikey followed the other source.

It wasn't long before the orange-masked turtle entered a very familiar stretch of tunnel that he associated with some rather unpleasant memories. _It would be a place like this dump._ Mike thought. _Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea. _ He beat feet out of the tunnel and followed the other source. As he passed the manhole where they hit the streets on their way to April's he slowed down. That wasn't where the buzzing was coming from so he decided that Don and Leo must have already left. _This would be a lot easier if those two didn't have legs!_ He took off after the source again.

* * *

Leo was trying to hurry through the sewers, but Don had decided to make things difficult. The harder he tried to get home, the more belligerent Donnie became in his insistence to find Mike in the opposite direction.

"Donnie, he's at home with Raph, stop this!" Leo ordered in a harsh whisper.

"He's not! Leo, stop! Put me down!"

"You could barely stand back at April's. What makes you think you can now? We'll go home, and Mike will be there, you'll see."

"He won't. He's that way! MIKEY!" Don desperately called over Leo's shoulder as he tried to wriggle away from his brother.

"Donnie, shh!"_ Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. I should have had Mikey meet us. _"What's wrong with you?"

"MIKEY!"

Leo noticed that this time Don's shout sounded like a greeting. He turned to see Michelangelo jogging up behind them.

"Leo, let me go. Let me go! Mikey!"

Releasing the purple-masked turtle, Leo was entirely unsurprised when Don's knees didn't support him, but he'd really had enough of Don's little tantrum. Mike was there in an instant and prevented Donnie from crashing to the sewer floor.

Almost as soon as he touched Don, Mikey felt the buzzing stop. His head spun momentarily, but he pulled himself together. After a moment he picked up his suddenly docile brother.

"Did I miss something here?" Leo asked in complete confusion. "What just happened?"

"You didn't feel that?" Mikey asked incredulously as they started walking. "You're mystic ninja guy, and you didn't feel that?" When Leo shook his head, Mikey continued. "Man, as I got close to your guys, it felt like the air itself was alive."

"What are you talking about?"

"... alive and wiggling and stuff air's not supposed to do. Huh? Oh, I don't know. I just followed it."

It didn't take long for Leo to put two and two together. "Would 'buzzing', 'electric', 'hum' or 'power' describe it?"

"All four." Mikey confirmed. "There were two sources this time, but it's stopped now."

"This time?" Leo asked in confusion.

"Yeah, the first time I felt it was when Donnie did that chanting thing."

Leo was beginning to see a pattern. "He fell asleep at April's." he informed his brother. "While April and I were eating, he yelled at Takeda. When he snapped out of it, the first thing he did once fully conscious was ask for you."

"You know? As soon as I touched his shoulder, it stopped."

Mikey and Leo shifted so they shared the burden of Don's weight. They walked for several minutes before either spoke again.

"Do you know if he's been sleeping?" Leo asked softly

"I don't know. I've seen him napping in the main room, but I don't know what he does at night." He looked over at the brother in question, who had been overly quiet in response to the inquiry. "He's asleep now."

"You're kidding." Leo said in disbelief.

"Nope." Mike responded brightly. "Sound asleep." He purposely shook Don a little causing a small groan to escape their exhausted brother.

"Mikey!" Leo scolded as he smacked his mischievous brother on the arm. "Let him sleep." He added over Mike's exclamation of mild pain.

Once they were home, Raphael took the sleeping turtle and tucked him into bed. If Don had ever moved his bed closer to the floor, like a normal bed, Raph would have let Mike and Leo deal with it. As it was, this was the best way.

* * *

"I am saddened though not surprised." Splinter was saying when Raphael returned. "Michelangelo, you also feel this 'buzzing'?"

"Hai, Sensei."

"And it stopped the moment you and Donatello were in contact?"

"Hai."

Splinter thought for a moment, considering all he had heard and observed of this phenomenon. "It is possible that together you are shielded from the disturbance."

"Sensei," Leo piped up. "Mike can feel it, but Don was desperate. I wouldn't be surprised if whatever this buzzing is is extremely painful for him. I'd be surprised if it wasn't, given his reaction to it."

Taking in this new information, Splinter sighed. He looked at his three sons and froze. The slice on Michelangelo's plastron from several months ago now caught his eye. It probably shouldn't have healed as it had, probably shouldn't have healed at all, but what Donatello had done at the time had knitted the gash together in that manner. Splinter recalled now that his purple-masked son bore a similar, albeit much fainter, mark on his plastron too. _Perhaps..._

"Master Splinter?" Leo prompted.

"Perhaps Michelangelo carries the piece of Donatello's mind that would allow him to block the buzzing on his own." Splinter suggested. "Just as Donatello carries the mark of the blade meant for Michelangelo."


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Master Splinter, I don't understand." Donatello had finally awoken and Splinter had explained the previous evening's conversation to him.

"Do you see this scar?" Splinter inquired as he indicated the mark on Michelangelo. "You have the same mark. A physical mark transferred to you by your brother. Is it so hard to believe that, in return, some piece of yourself was transferred to him?"

Don looked at the floor and shook his head. It made sense, but he did not want to believe it.

"It may be possible for you to find that missing piece of yourself and it may allow you to block out the buzzing on your own."

The only memory Don had of the previous night was one of intense pain and feeling like his own body was going to literally shake itself apart. He shuddered involuntarily. "What do I have to do?" He asked quietly.

Michelangelo was called into the room. He took a seat directly facing his brother, and Master Splinter sat to the side of the two turtles. "Are you ready?" When both nodded he directed the pair to join hands. They did so and Splinter led them into a light meditation. From there, Donatello's gifts took over allowing the turtles access to the other's mind, or more accurately, allowing them both access to Michelangelo's mind.

Donatello found himself on a sandy beach. Unlike the last time he was there, the weather was beautiful. The sun warmed him, but was not overly hot. Parrots few overhead and cormorants raced the waves. _Wait a minute! Parrots?_ Yup, bright red and green parrots were in the air. One dove playfully, and Don had to laugh. Pulling his attention away from the beautiful birds, he started to search for his brother.

"Yo, Donnie!" Mikey called out from his spot atop a large rock formation. He lay on his back on a brightly colored beach towel and wore orange tinted sunglasses instead of his mask.

Don looked over to the voice and climbed the rocks to his brother's side.

"Take a load off, bro." Mike greeted. He snapped his fingers and a second towel appeared on the rock beside him. Another snap and Don's mask was replaced with a pair of purple sunglasses.

Donnie sat down on the towel and looked out at the crashing waves.

"You forgot something last time you were here." Mike said in a tone of idle conversation.

"So I'm told."

"You mean you didn't know?" Mikey sounded surprised as he eyed his brother over the top rim of his sunglasses.

"Nope." Don affirmed without taking his eyes from the ocean.

"Well, I did need it at the time, and you did give it willingly, but I suppose it's time for me to return it."

"Wait!" Donnie interrupted. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

Mike considered the question for a long moment. "I don't know. Perhaps the part of me that you have interacted with since didn't know either. Consciously, I don't remember the exchange anymore than you do, but I do know that a small piece of you has been in my care. Just as a small piece of me has been in yours."

"The scar." Don whispered.

Mikey nodded and held out his left hand. A predominantly purple, iridescent orb about the size of a tennis ball appeared just above his open palm. Mike looked at it for a moment and laughed. "In a world as orange as mine is, this kind of stood out."

Searching his own mind, Donatello found an orange sphere that he only now realized seemed out of place in his own purple world. It appeared over his left hand.

Taking care to make the exchange at the exact same moment, Mike and Don each dropped the orb from his left hand into his brother's open right palm. As the exchange took place, Don was blown out of Mikey's mind even to the point of his physical body being hurled across the room. When he opened his eyes both Master Splinter and Mikey were standing over him, looking concerned.

"Is it done, My sons?" Splinter asked. Mikey only shrugged, but Don searched his mind again and came up with an answer. The orange orb was gone, purple in its place. He glanced down at his plastron and noticed that the scar that had been there for the past seven months was also gone.

"Yes, it is done."

* * *

Leonardo was searching for Donatello later that afternoon and found his brother at the computer, big surprise.

"Hey, Leo." Don greeted as he pushed a short distance away from the monitor to allow Leo to see the screen better. "Was this that 'trunk' you saw?"

Leo took a look at the illustration. It looked like the original that had been scanned onto the website was quite old. He took his time in making his decision before responding to the question.

"Yeah, I think so. Does it have something to do with this Amiah thing?"

Donnie clicked a few keys and another window popped up. The Legend of Amiah proudly shone at the top of the web page.

"It's a lot easier to find when you're spelling it right. I didn't realize it had an 'h' at the end." Don admitted.

"So this is what the Foot is after? This Amiah thing?"

"Yes, what you saw was actually a cask. The origins of the story have been lost to history, but the most recent surfacing occurred in what is now North and South Korea." Don pointed at the screen to show Leo where he was reading. "Damage even spread as far as China and parts of Russia. Amiah is a force, demon or god, depending on the telling of the tale, and it is said that 'whoever controls Amiah controls the world', either that or 'the future'" He paused to consider what he was reading. "I guess what is really controlled is lost in translation." He shrugged. "Anyway, it looks like there is one person at any given time with the power to control Amiah." Don pointed out the sections of the text as he explained.

"Well, the whole controlling the world or future or whatever could be why the Foot seems to want that box so badly." Leo commented.

"True," Donnie agreed. "But the question then becomes how are they going to control it?" I mean, the chances of one of them being the single individual with that ability is pretty slim."

"Well, they don't need to control it directly." Leo thought out loud. "They just need to control the one who can." _Like a puppet on a string. I don't envy the poor slob who's stuck as Takeda's puppet._

"Like a puppet?" Don asked absently.

Leo was sure that if Donnie read that from his mind that it had been entirely unintentional, but he didn't miss the concern in his brother's voice.

"Donnie, what are you thinking?" Leo asked gently.

"I... I'm thinking that... no, it's crazy. Don't worry about it, Leo." Donnie responded.

Leonardo was definitely going to worry about it because it was painfully obvious that whatever thought had just flitted across Don's mind had upset the purple-masked turtle greatly. He made a mental note to push Donnie about it later.

"Well," Leo said instead. "At least we know what they're after now. Come on, it's time for training."

Don stood and silently followed Leo to the dojo. Mikey and Raph were already there and had stretched in preparation for their evening workout. Evenings generally focused more on their new mutations than morning practices did, but Leo had made it a point to train in such a way as to level the playing field as much as possible. Each day they focused on a different strength. Today they were running, Mikey's forte. They all knew the course well and Mike ran circles around the rest of them, but that was how it was supposed to work. At the end, they timed a sprint through the sewers.

Mikey looked over Leo's shoulder at the table of results from this and previous runs. "Donnie!" he exclaimed. "You actually..."

Having already wandered off, Donatello was not there to hear Mikey's excited shout. He pulled his bedroom door shut behind him.

"What's eating him?" Mikey asked, scratching his head.

"I'm not sure." Leo admitted. "He wouldn't say."

"What do you mean, he wouldn't say?" Raph demanded. Donnie was generally pretty strict with himself about telling his brothers exactly what he was thinking. It was only fair since he usually had some sense of their thoughts.

"He said it was crazy and not to worry about it." Leo informed.

"Sounds like he needs to take his own advice." Raphael observed.

"I'm not sure he knows what's wrong." Leo sighed. "He found something about Amiah and the cask we saw."

"He did? When?" Raph snapped, slightly upset that he hadn't know about this.

"Just before we came in. He wanted to know if the cask I saw matched the one he found." Leo quickly recounted the conversation by Don's computer. "...Then I mentioned that the Foot didn't have to control Amiah. They just needed to control the person who could. That's when he got all secretive."

"That's it, Leo." Mikey said quietly.

"What are you talking about?" Raph asked, rounding on his orange-masked brother.

"Matai akah reiset Amiah." Mike repeated. "Takeda's been trying to control him for weeks.

"You think Donnie can control this Amiah thing?" Raph asked incredulously. "You've lost it, bro, because that's-"

"Crazy?" Leo supplied.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Raphael looked around the room. Mikey was on the other end of the couch, they'd come to a compromise and were watching The Transporter on DVD instead of fighting over the remote. Leo was sitting in the chair next to the couch reading a book. Raph didn't know what the book was and he didn't particularly care. It was probably boring anyway. If he recalled correctly, Master Splinter was in his room meditating. He turned back to the movie. After a few more minutes he heard a door close upstairs.

Donatello made his way down to the main room of the lair and headed over to the elevator to the warehouse. Even as he did so, he knew he wouldn't be up there alone for long. Part of him welcomed the impending intrusion, but part of him feared it as well. He pressed the button and entered the elevator with a sigh.

Turning away from the movie, Raphael glanced at Leo. The blue-masked turtle had noticed Don's departure from the lair, but didn't seem interested in following. Raph stood up and followed his brother's retreat from the main section of their home.

Arriving in the warehouse, it didn't take Raphael long to find his purple-masked brother hiding underneath the Sewer Slider. As silently as he could, Raph sat on a stool next to the rig an picked up the toolbox Don had laid out next to where he was working. He only had moments to wait.

Donnie reached out to the box he knew he had placed on the floor just out from under the Sewer Slider, but it wasn't where he had left it. He glanced in the direction of the box and found only his brother's feet in it's place.

"What do you want, Raph?" Don asked with a sigh.

"I want to know what's up with you." the red-masked turtle answered crisply. "What's this I hear about you not telling Leo something? It's not like you, bro."

"Raph I-"

"I mean, you've always had your reasons before, but if this is going to affect all of us-" Raphael cut himself off. He was starting to sound like Leo. This was getting stupid. It wasn't his style. Raph growled in frustration before he spoke again. "Are you this Amiah controller person?"

"Raph!" The question had claimed Don's undivided and he tried to sit up, only to conk his head on the underside of the Sewer Slider. "How could you think such a thing? I mean the chances against that are-"

"Spare me the numbers, Donnie, 'cuz I don't care what the odds are. We've never played the odds a day in our life. If we had, we'd be dead. So tell me the truth. Are you capable of controlling Amiah?"

Donatello could only stare at his brother, and it didn't take long before he noticed that his hesitance to talk was wearing on his brother's nerves.

"If we'd played the odds, we'd still be four pet turtles in some kid's aquarium, but to answer your question: I don't know." He finally admitted.

"But you think it might be possible." Raph finished for him. "And don't you dare lie to me."

"Anything is possible, right?" Don commented by way of response.

"Donnie." Raph warned. He could see that his brother was getting flustered with the conversation, but he didn't care. Crossing his arms across his chest, Raphael fixed Don with a look that clearly stated that he was determined to get the full story.

A sigh escaped Donatello. He knew the look on Raph's face all too well. He wasn't going anywhere until he spilled everything. Both of them knew how this was going to end, like it or not.

"Takeda wants Amiah." Don started. "Chances are that he isn't the one who can control it. The odds against that are phenomenal, the odds against anyone being that person are phenomenal."

"I know that, Donnie. That's not what I asked." Raphael warned his brother that he was quickly losing patience with him.

Don swallowed before continuing. "But if Takeda isn't the one who can control Amiah, that doesn't mean he can't control it through someone else, a middleman so to speak."

"Takeda's little puppet on a string?" Raph asked. He saw his brother shudder at the comment. "So it is true. You can control it."

"There could be a thousand other reasons that Takeda's been invading my mind, Raph. I could just be picking up on his search, without actually being the intended target."

"You don't really believe that, do you?" Raph asked incredulously. "You know better. Heck, Mikey knows better!" What he got next was just about the last thing he expected.

"Raph, why are you doing this? Mikey doesn't know any more than I do! There's no way. It's not possible! This is ridiculous!" Upon completing his little tirade, Don picked up a wrench that had escaped the toolbox that still sat in Raphael's lap and hurled it across the room. It lodged itself in a support beam about 10 feet away. Donnie had always been particularly good with shuriken, and apparently a wrench wasn't that much different.

"Feel better?" Raph asked harshly as he watched Don slump with the abrupt draining of his anger and frustration. When Donnie nodded he continued.

"Good, because it's almost time for our nightly training run." Raph had half expected Don to argue after all the running he'd already done today, but instead the drained, purple-masked turtle just nodded. Apparently, the thought of more argument was worse than that of more running.

"Raph?" Donnie said in a small voice after a long moment.

Surprised at how lost his brother sounded, Raphael turned to face him. "Yeah?"

"We can't let him get that thing open. It could..."

"Could what?" Raphael prompted. He did not have to wait long before Donatello sighed and finally consented to an explanation of what had been bothering him so.

"Last time Amiah was released, an area larger than the whole of New England was destroyed. I don't want to be the one who releases that." Don folded his hands and looked at the floor.

"You won't be." Raphael promised, clapping his brother on the back. "We'll stop him. Come on, Leo's gonna be peeved if we're late."


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Leo led his brothers over the rooftops of New York City. He kept seeing flashes of a fight and was half-tempted to head home for the evening before it ever came to that. As their run continued, he'd been pleased to notice that Donnie had come around and was back to being himself again. Leo had no doubt that it was at least partially Raphael's doing. Assessing his brothers, he realized that they were all prepared and capable of handling a scuffle, should they come across one, so he continued the run through the city. Over the past several months, Leo had been slowly learning how to control his reactions to his visions as he had been unable to gain any direct control over the visions themselves.

Another flash shot through Leo's mind and he halted. _He wasn't sure where he was so he looked for points of reference. Billboards, prominent buildings, unique brickwork, anything to pinpoint where he was seeing. Glancing around himself, in the vision, he spotted a street sign and a familiar billboard. _When the vision ended he compared his current location to where they were needed.

"We've got Foot." Leo stated as he started off across the roofs again.

Looking around carefully and not seeing anyone, Raph knew that Leo had been referring to a vision. He was looking forward to the fight, but briefly thought back to the conversation in the warehouse. After a moment he dismissed the dark possibilities

They were almost there when Leo realized that Don had come to an abrupt halt. Given the look on his brother's face, this probably hadn't been such a good idea after all. Leo cursed himself for not talking to Raph before the run to find out what had occurred in the warehouse shortly before they left. Leo knew that if anything bad happened here that he would be on even worse terms with Raphael than he already was.

"Leo, it's..." Don's voice was haunted. "Takeda's here and he brought the cask." After a moment he continued, spilling the worst of what he had picked up from those around him. "And we've been spotted."

The blue-masked turtle cursed. Something as obvious as the cask or Takeda's presence should have been picked up from his visions! He couldn't imagine how he had missed something that important. If he had known that Takeda or the cask would be here, he never would have come, but it was too late to turn back now. Foot ninja dropped around them from nearby rooftops, and Leo unsheathed his katana. Behind him he knew that his brothers had drawn their weapons as well. Raphael and Michelangelo stood to his left and right, while Donatello was directly behind him. Leo hated being surrounded. He glared, his eyes becoming narrow slits.

The Foot made the first move, leaping in toward Michelangelo. Mikey was behind the charging Foot ninja before anyone knew he had moved. He grabbed the ninja by the shoulder, spun him around with one hand and struck him in the gut with the other.

First move made by the Foot, Raphael went on the offensive. He kept his mind clear and level as he went through the Foot ninja foolish enough to confront him. The red-masked turtle was quick to disarm his opponents with his sais and dispatch them with a well placed kick. He was careful to watch the power behind his strikes. Losing control at this stage in the game was not something he could allow to happen. The full extent of his and Michelangelo's abilities were as yet a mystery to the Foot, and they wished for it to remain that way. If they didn't have to use their abilities to the limits it was best that they didn't.

Donatello and Leonardo remained back to back, fighting as a pair for now. Each knew that it wouldn't be long before they would be forced to separate and move apart. Leo leapt, performed a split kick to his sides and took out two Foot ninja. He heard another one grunt as the enemy ninja became well acquainted with the business end of Don's bo staff. It was then the Leo felt his brother drift from his side, and he started paying even more attention to what was happening behind him.

"No." Don gasped when he spotted Takeda on a nearby roof with the cask. Seven candles were on the roof arranged around the leader of the Foot at regular intervals. Takeda was also surrounded by the Foot Mystics and Foot Elite. There was no way that he or any of his brothers could get there in time, and... The pull of Amiah on his mind told Don that he was too close. His proximity would allow Takeda to perform the ritual on his own!

He was too far away for conventional hearing, but Don felt Takeda start the ritual. Pulling his focus back to the fight, he realized that the Foot ninja around him had backed away. The assault on his brothers continued, but Donatello was left alone.

_Matai Akah Reiset Amiah._

"No!" Don shouted as he heard the mental words that he knew were also spoken aloud by Takeda.

Raphael heard the yell and spun around toward the source. His purple-masked brother was surrounded by Foot, but no one was attacking him. It didn't take him long to figure out where Donnie was looking. On the nearby rooftop he spotted Takeda surrounded by a small army.

Listening carefully, Raph could just barely hear now-familiar words dancing down from the rooftop. Takeda had to be shouting for the sound to reach this far. He felt two Foot ninja coming toward him and Raphael spun around, taking down one with a kick to the gut while catching the other's sword between his sai. He expertly twisted his wrists and snapped the katana in two before spinning his sai around and nailing his opponent with the handle of the weapon. The two opponents down, he turned his attention back to his brother and Takeda.

"MATAI AKAH REISET AMIAH!" The words had an almost physical force to them, and Raph heard Don scream in pain. What he could not know was that the scream was sparked by the feeling that Amiah's energy was splitting Don's brain into two, if not more, pieces. Raphael watched in horror as a bright light lanced out of the cask and disintegrated the Foot Elite that had been in it's path. The light left Takeda alone, but those around him were destroyed.

"Get to street level, NOW!" Raphael shouted to Mikey and Leo. "Jump for it!" He added quickly. He knew that Mike would know what to do. Before he had even shouted he was running toward his screaming brother. Raph casually tossed the Foot ninja that surrounded Don aside. He grabbed his brother and jumped from the building. It was a long fall, but they had no options.

* * *

Michelangelo heard Raphael shout. Being told to jump for it, Mikey didn't question for an instant, Raph always had a _very_ good reason for calling a retreat. From where they were it was too far down for Leo or Don to make the vertical drop alive on their own. He quickly spotted Raph running for Don so he headed toward Leo at top speed. The orange-masked turtle slowed just enough so as not to hurt his brother as he continued toward the edge. Grabbing Leo he raced toward the nearest edge of the roof. Before the turtles even hit the ground the Foot ninja who had remained on the roof had been reduced to so many piles of ash.

Twisting in the air, Michelangelo wrapped himself around Leonardo as best he could. He made sure that he was the one to hit first, absorbing most of the shock for his brother, and hopefully allowing both to get away with no more than a few bruises and maybe being a little shaken. Mikey hit the ground shell first and bounced back into the air, coming perilously close to the light emanating from the now-open cask before dropping back down. He managed to twist in the air again and land on his feet this time. Hitting pavement the second time he still focused on keeping Leo from absorbing any of the shock of the fall. Leo, for his part looked shaken after the long drops and had the wind knocked out of him. Carefully lowering Leo to the ground so he could catch his breath, Mikey gave his brother an apologetic grin.

* * *

Raphael held tight to his brother as they tumbled from the roof. Don fell silent and offered no help, nor resistance to any of Raph's movements during the fall and that worried Raphael slightly. He couldn't be sure that either Leo or Donnie would survive the drop, but it was the only option that didn't involve being disintegrated by the light from the cask. Raph wrapped himself protectively around Don as they neared the ground. He couldn't see it, but he knew where it was. Closing his eyes, he begged whatever powers that be existed to let Leo and Don survive the fall. He hit pavement with a loud crunch, and he felt the concrete give beneath him.

Quickly and gently he moved Don off him to the ground. "Donnie. Donnie are you ok? Come on, speak to me, bro." Raph begged quietly just in case someone was nearby.

"Raph." Don whispered weakly before taking his brother's hand. _It's free. Amiah is free._

_I know. I saw it destroy the Foot. You did good, Donnie._

_No,_ the purple-masked turtle contradicted. _Amiah did that on it's own. Takeda used me. He has it now. _After a moment Don found it in himself to actually speak and try moving around. "Raph, this is just the beginning." Donatello couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong aside from Amiah's rising, something he couldn't place yet.

"Whatever happens, Donnie," Raphael promised. "We'll get through this: you, me, Leo and Mike. We can still stop it, and we will." He looked up at a familiar and unwelcome, if not unexpected sound.

"Sirens." Raph commented quietly as he helped his brother to his feet and released his hand.

_What?_ Don asked silently.

"Where are Leo and Mikey?" Raph inquired, unaware of his brother's question or the significance behind it.

"Underground now." Don responded absently as he realized what had been so weird earlier. Only then did it dawn on him that everything Raphael had said had been... From Raph's desperation to get to the sewers, Don knew that the sirens were far to close for comfort. A little voice in the back of his mind wondered how long he could go before his family found out.


	13. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the ninja turtles or any associated characters/places/etc. I make no money from this and I mean no harm. Please don't sue.**  
**

**A/N: **Wow, it's been a while on this one. Sorry for the delay. I can't guarantee when the next update to this little tale will be, but hopefully it will be quicker than this one. My finals are over, but I have a huge test at the end of the summer plus a whole mess of real life stuff that has to happen, and I don't know how I'm going to get it all done. Anyway, here's the next chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 12**

Leonardo felt like he'd been hit by a truck, which wasn't that far from the truth. Michelangelo was helping him, but he was having a little trouble staying upright after the fall from the roof. Mikey, thanks to his bouncy mutation, was none the worse for wear.

"We have to go back." Leo insisted. "Raph and Don."

"If they can, they'll meet us at home. If they can't, there's nothing we can do for them now." Mikey said honestly as he forced Leo onward toward their home.

"Takeda was there." Leo said disbelievingly. "I can't believe I missed that." The one thing that would have made Leo turn around and go home had been the one thing he missed. He was well aware of the need to keep Takeda from getting Amiah and it had seemed that the best way to do that was to keep Don away from the whole mess. Leonardo had practically handed their enemy victory on a platter.

"It's not your fault." Michelangelo insisted. He knew his brother and could see that Leo was blaming himself for the problems they now faced.

"We shouldn't have gone. Amiah's free now." Leo slurred.

"Now how do you know that? And besides, I thought Donnie was the only one who could control it."

"You saw what happened. How can it not be free? Takeda was standing in the light, and he wasn't killed. We were wrong, Takeda can control it."

"Whatever happens, we'll deal." Mikey promised absently, really talking just to keep Leo awake and focused on what they were doing.

"Mikey, we have to go back. Don and Raph." Leo repeated in his dazed state.

"We can't do anything for them right now. I'm sure they're fine, Leo."

Despite Mike's assurances, Leo couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with at least one of their brothers. He didn't know what, and he didn't know who, but he knew that something wasn't right.

* * *

Raphael led the way through the sewers, he could feel his brother walking just behind him. While he could understand why Donnie might not be in the mood to talk right now, Raph needed something. They hadn't said a word to each other since entering the sewers. 

"What'cha thinkin', Donnie?" Raph asked. He didn't get a response right away. _Well, is he gonna answer or not?_

It was strange not to hear the familiar sounds of the sewers around him. The ripple of water as it raced through the tunnels, the dripping from manholes and grates topside. It was silent, just him and his thoughts... and Raph's thoughts. From behind his brother, Donatello couldn't tell what had been spoken and what hadn't, but eventually he realized that he had been asked a question.

"I'm thinking..." Don debated whether or not he should tell his brother about this latest development for a moment before making a decision. He needed to tell someone. "Raph, can you keep a secret? Whatever I tell you now, will you promise not to tell anyone?"

_What's with him?_

"Do you promise?" Don persisted.

"Yeah, yeah. I promise. Not a word." Raph finally managed. He was becoming concerned at his brother's behavior. This wasn't something Donnie generally did. This was more up Mikey's alley. When his brother finally did decide to spill his secret, Raph could barely make out the words.

"I... I can't hear."

Now Raphael didn't believe that for a second. "Don't be ridiculous! If you can't hear then how can you have a conversation like this." He watched as Donatello took his hand.

_You have to think to speak._ Donatello thought. Raphael yanked his hand from his brother's grasp and proceeded to bawl out his usually logical and sensible brother.

"Donnie, this is nuts! You have to tell Master Splinter at least!"

"Raph, the only people who can hear your shouting right now are people you probably don't want to hear it." Don commented coolly, the force of Raph's thoughts on his mind combined with the gesticulations and deep breaths his brother was going through made it easy to tell that Raph was indeed shouting. "I don't want Master Splinter, or anyone else to know." Donatello admitted, nervously looking down at his hands

"If you don't tell him, I will!" Raph growled warningly. This was ridiculous. If something came up and they didn't know that Don couldn't hear, it could be a death sentence for them all.

"No! No, Raph, you promised!"

"And just how do you think you're going to hide something like this? It's dangerous and foolish, Donnie! You have to tell."

"You didn't know until I said something." Don objected.

"Master Splinter is going to be pissed off when he finds out that you've hidden something like this from him, Don. Not to mention what Leo will do when he finds out." Raphael warned, trying to talk some sense into his usually sensible brother.

"Help me make sure they don't." Don begged.

"Do you realize what you're asking?"

"Please, Raph. Tell me I made the right decision by telling you. I just... can't tell them yet."

"A week. I'll give you a week. No longer." Raph stated flatly. "If you still can't hear then you have to tell everyone, and if you don't, I will."

Don nodded mutely. He didn't like the idea of having to tell at all, but deep in his heart, he knew that his brother was right.

Raphael was almost sorry that he'd asked. He didn't want the responsibility that the secret his brother had just shared left him with. He didn't want to be the only who who knew that Donnie couldn't hear. It didn't make sense to Raph, there shouldn't have been a reason for this. From where Raph stood, Takeda had risen Amiah so that meant that they had been wrong; Takeda could control Amiah. Don must have just picked up on the disturbances of Takeda's earlier attempts, but if that had been the case, why hadn't the Foot attacked Donnie when they had the opportunity. It didn't make sense. _Shell, I hope he can't hear this right now.

* * *

_

Takeda stood on the roof with his prize. He had expected the sacrifice of the Foot ninja and Foot Elite that he had brought with him for this assignment. That was part of the ritual. The demise of the Turtles was an added bonus. He had used their strength to usher Amiah into this world, and now they were gone. That would just make the demon stronger and his task easier. A sinister cackle tickled Takeda's throat. The dark sound echoed through the New York night. Reverberating through vacant alleys and trash strewn streets. A woman hurrying home after work pulled her coat a little tighter and started moving a little faster in her desire to escape the chill that had settled in her bones.

Now that Amiah was free, it was Takeda's to control, and he would use that control to the best of his ability and the full extent of its power. He would control the future. The Foot was the future. Where his predecessors had failed he would succeed.

The cask now completely open, Takeda looked in and saw the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes upon. Amiah shimmered with untapped potential, power beyond even Takeda's wildest dreams. And it was all here, it all lay within his reach. It was all his for the taking, and there was nothing that anyone could do to stop him.

A cold wind whipped through the alleys of New York, leaves fluttered from their branches and danced through the street leaving the bare trees, seemingly dead sentinels, silent witnesses to the horrors which were about to occur.

A blast that few could feel and even fewer could understand shot away from the cask at the speed of sound. It touched everything within a thousand mile radius, and Takeda's laugh was superimposed over the shock wave, letting the world know who had the power. Introducing the world to it's new leader. The force of the blast bowled Donatello over, and he was lucky to have been caught by Raph before being knocked off the pipe they were crossing at the time.

"Welcome to the World, Amiah. I do hope you'll like it here." Takeda cooed to his new prize.


	14. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: **If I owned the ninja turtles, I would not be here writing fan fiction. I do not own the turtles or any associated characters or places. I make no money from this and I mean no harm. Please do not sue.

**A/N: **Holy cow, it's been a long wait on this one. For that I apologize. I recently received a little poking and prodding for this one, so I dusted off the next chapter and gave it a final edit. And here it is!  
Just a reminder. Italics are used for character's thoughts and Leo's visions. It is rarely used for emphasis and then only for a word or two. I think you'll be able to figure out what it what. (especially if you have up to now!) Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 13**

Takeda smiled as he walked toward his prize. Amiah was his after all this time, all the time and resources he had put into this plan had finally borne fruit. Finally, all those who had laughed would pay. It had been unwise to cross Takeda before, now it was foolhardy. He chuckled to himself as he opened the door to the room containing his prize. Now that the being was here, was solid again, it would need to feed, just like any other corporeal being.

Amiah glared when Takeda opened the door. The leader of the Foot was probably lucky that looks, not even the ones of beings such as Amiah, could not kill. All the same, he entered the room with a good natured grin on his face.

"I am honored to be in your presence, oh exalted Amiah. I have been waiting for this day, and it is finally here." He bowed to the being in front of him. A small smirk crossed his face. The demon was not amused at being here, but that did not matter. He had raised it, ergo it was his to control. A gang member who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time was forced into the room. "For you, Amiah. I offer a sacrifice."

"Sacrifice?" The teen protested. "What the hell do you mean, sacrifice?"

The glare did not leave the being's face. This was wrong. This person was not the one with the power. If he truly thought he had control, he was soon going to find that he was very much mistaken. Amiah searched its memories, and knew that it had once relished the destruction and pain Takeda offered, but this person who had been brought as an apparent sacrifice was a poor choice at best. The choice of this being didn't affect Takeda in the least. Amiah ignored the man before it and the offering that still protested in the doorway. The demon turned away from the man who desired control he could never have.

It was only a matter of time...

* * *

Michelangelo and Leonardo were the first to arrive at the lair. Master Splinter was shocked by Leo's state. He was awake and alert, but had been badly shaken in the fall. Chances were the turtle had suffered a concussion. Quickly checking his son's eyes, Splinter became more sure of his initial assessment. It didn't help matters that the moment Leo was sitting down he became quite sleepy. 

"Michelangelo, keep your brother awake. Whatever you do, do not let him fall asleep." Without another word, Splinter left the room to make some tea for his injured son. Upon his return, he wasn't entirely surprised to find that Leonardo was wide awake again and wondering as to the whereabouts of Donatello and Raphael.

"Mikey, we gotta find them. They might need us."

"We don't even know where to start looking for them." Mikey reasoned. "And you're in no shape to go looking for anyone anyway. They'll be home soon, I'm sure of it."

Leo wasn't convinced by his brothers words, but he knew that Mikey was right about one thing, he wasn't in any shape to help anyone at the moment, but that had never stopped him from trying. And he just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

_Donatello and Raphael were arguing about something. Leo couldn't make out the words of the conversation that passed at faster than normal speeds, but the gestures made clear that there was some sort of argument going on. Raph crossed his arms and Don looked at the floor._

Leo wished he knew what the argument that hadn't yet taken place was been about. Both of his brothers had seemed upset in the vision, and Leo still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with one or both of them. But he took comfort in the fact that they were alive. He started to close his eyes and give into his body's want for sleep.

"Hey, Leo?" Mikey's brassy voice cut through his hazy, sleep-craving thoughts. "Want to play Space Destructors?" He offered a controller to the blue masked turtle.

"Nah."

"Well, you can't practice, and I can't let you go to sleep. I don't really have that many ideas about what you might want to do, bro."

Leo opened his eyes again and watched Mikey carefully, remembering his concussion and realizing that Michelangelo was right. If he was playing the game, there was much less risk of him falling asleep.

"Alright, I'll play, but not Space Destructors." Leo accepted the controller and couldn't help but smile at the big cheesy grin that came over Mikey's face.

* * *

When Raphael and Donatello walked in some time later, Master Splinter was surprised by the tension between the two brothers. There had rarely been any sort of tension between this particular pair, and in recent history it was almost unheard of. All the same, the tension was obvious. Neither seemed particularly angry with the other, but something had happened and put both on edge. He had a feeling it had something to do with Amiah, and decided that he would approach them separately later. 

Raph walked with Don to the main area of the lair where they found Michelangelo and Leonardo playing Crash Bandicoot: TwinSanity, obviously Leo's choice.

"Hey! You're back!" Mikey greeted without looking up.

Leo paused the game and turned to the two new arrivals, relief plain on his face. "You're ok."

"Sure we are." Raph commented shortly. "Takes more than a short fall to take us down."

"You probably got the worst part of this deal." Don added.

"I'm sorry, Don. I never should have taken us into that fight."

"Leo," Don said exasperatedly. "You didn't know he was there, and don't bother denying it. It's not your fault."

Leonardo gave his brother a half smile and turned back to the game he was playing with Michelangelo. "You should probably have Master Splinter check you for a concussion too."

"Too?" Raph questioned.

"Yeah, too. It's kind of the reason for the game." Leo responded, still looking at the cartoon characters on the screen.

"Ah, so we gotta keep you entertained for the next 24 hours?" Raph asked with mock annoyance.

"Yep, and I expect quality." Leo smiled.

At that moment Master Splinter came into the main room and called Raphael into his quarters. He didn't miss the look that passed between Raphael and Donatello as the red-masked turtle made his way out of the room.

* * *

"It's just something that happened in the fight, Sensei." Raphael promised. He bit his lip at lying to his sensei and father. 

"Hmm..." Splinter didn't miss Raphael's tell, but the turtle seemed more than reluctant to share whatever was on his mind. From the look on his son's face it was clear that Raphael knew that he wasn't buying the story. "I will let this go for now, but I expect you to tell me what has you so on edge eventually."

Raph looked at the floor. "Of course, Master Splinter." He wanted to tell more than anything, but he had promised that he would keep his mouth shut and even if he hadn't, it would not be fair not to give Don the opportunity to tell the story first.

As it turned out, Don didn't tell, not that night and not the next night nor the night after that. Raph promised a week, and Don had every intention of using every bit of that time, even as Master Splinter became more and more suspicious.


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N:** Well, I hope to have updates for this story a little more regularly now. I do have a muse that seems to have arisen from the dead! YAY!

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, I don't own it. I won't nothing, I make nothing, I mean to harm nothing. Please don't sue. I really have nothing.

* * *

**Chapter 14**

There were two guards outside the door, and no doubt that Takeda, or one of his pathetic minions, would be in shortly with another pathetic sacrifice. Amiah hated his 'sacrifices' as not one to date had been a sacrifice at all, they had cost Takeda nothing. Perhaps a real sacrifice, where Takeda actually gave up something of value would sway Amiah's thinking, but the man had yet to give anything of real value. Takeda had come in himself the night before so with luck, tonight would be one of his minions. A sly smile crossed Amiah's features at the thought.

* * *

Donatello yawned. It had been a long day and his brothers, with the exception of Raphael, had gone to bed long ago. He glanced at the soldering iron in his hand and decided that it was probably time to call it a night.

"Can I put this down now?" Raphael asked.

"Yeah, just don't-"

Raph dropped the box onto the table, and it landed with a heavy thud.

"-drop it." Don finished with a sigh. He shook his head.

"Have you told Master Splinter yet?" Raphael asked, changing the subject and ignoring the piece of equipment on the table. He wasn't surprised in the least when Donatello looked away from him and refused to answer. Raph sighed in response. "You get two more days." He growled with a frustrated shake of his head.

"Yeah, I know." Don replied.

"I mean it, Donnie. Two days, that's it!"

"I know, Raph! I remember the agreement."

"Monday morning, I'm telling Master Splinter. I suggest you beat me to it."

"Yeah, I know. Goodnight, Raph." Don stood up and made his way to his bedroom..

* * *

It was a minion night. A young kunoichi came in with another one of Takeda's pathetic prisoners bound and gagged. Amiah nearly gagged at the thought of faking interest in another of these stupid sacrifices, and decided that enough was enough. Instead of merely taking the offering, Amiah took the female ninja as well.

* * *

Don felt a strange buzzing in his head. It didn't hurt, but it was a little annoying. He pushed it aside and passed it off as part of his telepathy. It felt a lot like either Master Splinter or one of his brothers was agitated so he chose not to think much of it and pulled his blanket up a little higher. Rolling over, he tried to sleep.

* * *

A brief moment of concentration and the female ninja was, apparently, standing in the center of the room, despite the fact that her lifeless corpse was lying in the corner. Amiah, currently sporting the appearance of the kunoichi, wanted to smile at its accomplishment, but there was a part of its being that felt chastised for killing both the sacrifice and the ninja. The feeling was strange, one it had never felt in its many thousands of years. Amiah sighed and opened the door, walking through without sparing a glance or a word for the two guards. It seemed that this was just going to be too easy. A grin spread across the kunoichi's features. _Now to get out of here and find it._

"Hey, Kari!" A young foot ninja called out to the girl. 'Kari' never turned around, just continued walking. "Kari!" The ninja called again a little more loudly, "wait up!" Again 'Kari' didn't stop. The ninja reached out and grabbed Amiah's arm.

* * *

_Matai akah, veiten Amiah_

Donatello sat bolt upright in his bed, turned and dropped lightly to the floor, landing in a crouch. He stood and started gathering up his gear. He put on his belt and added a couple of items to the pouches on it. Next he crossed the room and started pulling on the knee and elbow pads he had discarded before going to bed. His purple mask was tied around his head, and he picked his bo staff up from where it rested, lying horizontally against the wall on a long table. Don walked purposefully out of his room and toward the exit of his family's home. He was not the only turtle who would leave the lair that night.

Leonardo heard some odd noises coming from his brother's room. He quickly and silently got out of bed to see what was going on, and was shocked to see Donatello walk out of his room and head toward the exit of their home. A short attempt to get Don's attention resulted in failure, and Leo wasted no time in rousing his other two brothers and getting them out in the sewers, silently following the non-responsive turtle. Not that Don would have noticed any noise they made, but Raphael was the only one who knew about that. For now, Raph would keep his brother's secret.

* * *

Amiah felt a hand on its shoulder and, in a flash of light that would have been blinding had anyone been near enough to witness it, the ninja that had reached out to 'Kari' was reduced to a pile of ash in the hallway. Amiah considered its options and decided to keep its current form, but the second ninja might be useful later. 'Kari' continued searching for an exit.

* * *

"Why hasn't he noticed us?" Mikey asked as Don found a ladder to the surface and started up.

"I don't think he's awake." Leo answered.

It was then that Raphael made a decision. Family was on a need to know basis for everything, and right now, Leo and Mikey needed to know.

"And he couldn't hear us even if he was."

Both Mikey and Leo whipped around at the words.

"Say what?" Mikey asked.

"I said, he can't hear us... or anything else for that matter. Not since that night Amiah rose." Came Raph's admission as he chose to fill Leo and Mikey in on recent events. "He didn't want anyone to know. I told him he was nuts, but he insisted." Raph paused for a moment before he grew tired of the look he received from Mikey and Leo. "Are we gonna follow him before he gets himself killed or not?"

Leo shook off his shock and started moving again. They would need to reevaluate their plan of attack for this situation if Don couldn't hear. In the meantime, the deafness would also put their brother in even greater danger now that he had left the safety of the sewers. Leo pushed up the manhole cover and ran for the shadows and the disappearing flash of purple he had seen.

* * *

Amiah was almost to the exit when an urgent feeling suddenly permeated the vicinity. Something involving the host. Amiah took stock of its options and changed once more, this time assuming the form of the young man who currently was no more than a scattering of ashes. Amiah watched a group of Takeda's little underlings race down the hall toward the room which now lay empty except for two corpses. Amiah waited in the shadows for the people to rush by, something it had picked up from the two hosts, before

reentering the hallway and continuing on its way.

* * *

"What do you mean 'Amiah is gone'?" Takeda thundered at the young man on his knees before him. "How did it escape?"

"It seems to have consumed both the sacrifice and the kunoichi assigned to present the gift." The man informed crisply, though more than a hint of fear could be heard in his voice.

Takeda walked to the window. "This is unexpected and most unfortunate. I expect that this mistake be rectified at once. You are dismissed."

The man on the floor blinked in surprise. "Master?"

"Did you not hear me? Go get it back."

This time the kneeling ninja nodded, stood, bowed quickly and rushed from the room. He did not need to be told a third time that he was off the hook... for now.

* * *

Donatello hid in the shadows of a dark alley as he had been taught to so long ago that it was almost habit anymore. A small group of people passed by and he watched silently as they did so. The instant they were gone he made a move for the roof. Never once did he notice his pursuers.

"Where the shell is he going?" Mikey asked as he watched Don jump to the rooftops.

"If we knew that, Mikey," Raph informed him less than gently, "we wouldn't need to follow him. Now move." The red-masked turtle gave his sibling a shove in the direction Don had run off. "Whatever we do, we don't want to lose him."

"Shh." Leo ordered as he began to make his way up the fire escape Donatello had taken to the roof. Mike and Raph were close behind despite the brief conversation.

"Leo," Raph commented as they continued to tail their telepathic brother. "we're getting' awfully deep into-"

"Foot territory. I know." Leo shushed his brothers with a hand gesture and continued to chase Don. Despite their location, Donatello kept right on running.

* * *

Amiah, using the form of the young man it had encountered in the hall walked right out the front door of the Foot's Headquarters. It glanced around and decided that the direction it wanted to go was up. This form was not as strong as the first one Amiah had tried on, and the method used to adopt the second form had been rushed. For brief times this would hold, but Amiah reverted to the more permanent form of the kunoichi who had brought in the sacrifice. That victim had been adequately prepared for use in this manner.

* * *

"Master Takeda, Sir," The foot operative (un)lucky enough to have been assigned the job of reporting directly to the master greeted as he rushed into the room. "Kari, the kunoichi killed earlier this evening has been sighted a short distance from here. We believe that Amiah may have assumed her form and has used it to escape."

"So go bring it back." Takeda growled, only just managing to retain enough composure to refrain from throttling the ninja who had brought him the information.

"We have two teams on it as we speak and three more are almost ready to go."

"So what are you waiting for?" Takeda demanded.

"There is something else, Master Takeda." The ninja continued. "One of the turtles, the purple one you ordered left unharmed, has been spotted in the area."

"They're still alive?!" Takeda growled in annoyance. This severely complicated matters. "The reptile is no longer of any use. Destroy him and his meddling brothers, and bring Amiah to me! Now!" Takeda snapped before leaving the room. This was a most unexpected and unwelcome development.


End file.
